New Mexico Embraces Scholastic Control of Civil Liberties
APS official hails truants’ penalty
Parent Charged Under Truancy Law
Governor Bill Richardson signed a truancy bill with the toughest penalty yet - driver’s license suspension for chronic truants.
This is one of those dangerous actions that does not immediately appear dangerous. The problem is that it ties a civil right (driving a car) to an unrelated criminal misdemeanor (truancy). There is no difference from making a law that your license will be suspended if you bounce a check or get into a bar fight. The crime and the punishment are completely unrelated.
Apparently it is not enough that parents/guardians of truants are considered criminally negligent and can be charged as such. A parent can be charged with petty misdemeanor truancy if their child misses 10 or more days of school in a year.
The yearlong pilot project involved an intensive prevention program and the threat of prosecution against parents of chronically truant students.
[Truancy prevention coordinator] Garcia signed the first five criminal complaints against Albuquerque parents in November and those cases were handled in Children’s Court.
He framed copies of those complaints because they were the turning point in his career. “They made history for me,” he said. And, they grabbed the public’s attention unlike anything else during the two decades he has spent as a truant officer.
In all but one case, the parents have been placed on probation after the court approved plans to improve the attendance of their children.
First time offenders are subject to a fine of $25 to $100 and/or community service. Any subsequent petty misdemeanor faces fines of up to $500 and up to 6 months in jail.
Now truant students will have their licenses suspended as well. I don’t see how this will help the problem of truancy. A child who is habitually skipping school already doesn’t care about authority over him and is already willfully breaking the rules. Is there anybody out there who thinks such a kid will have a problem driving with a suspended license?
The very dangerous thing here is the very short leap in logic that is possible with this new law in place:
Given: Parents are held criminally liable for the truancy of their kids.
Given: Suspension of licenses is a valid punishment for truant students.
Conclusion: Doesn’t it follow that suspension of parents’ licenses is also a valid punishment for truancy?
Since when did driving a car become a civil right? Please identify for me the court case.
My apologies for poor word choice. Driving a car would be a liberty and not a right. The point is exactly the same though. Tying an unrelated event to a driver’s license is fundamentally wrong. It is also a horrendously bad precedent.
Here in Silicon Valley last fall this happened to me - -
This Saturday, October 25th, we received a most interesting letter from the principal of the public elementary school that my daughter attends. It began by our daughter being declared as �legally truant� and cited chapter and verse from the education Code.
�Your child is now legally truant. Truancy is not a matter to be taken lightly. Education Code Section 48200 states that you are legally obliged to send your (child(ren)) to school, on-time everyday. A child who is deemed habitually truant may be referred to the School Attendance Review Board (SARB) for appropriate action. Following the requirements of the law, you must be advised of the consequences should this problem go uncorrected.�
The letter goes on to thinly threaten us with referral or complaint for legal action though Child Protective Services of the Social Services Department, the Probation Department, or the District Attorney�s Office. It then follows up with threats of prosecution of the child if 13 years or older, and threats of suspension, and possible delay of student driving privilege. It further includes threats of sanctions against any government financial aid that we as parents may be receiving.
Of course, all of the above is couched as an �intention that you be informed of the course of action that could be followed should the truancy persist.� This was our �First Declaration of truancy� for this child, and �additional unexcused absences will result in a second and third declaration of truancy and further truancies will result in a declaration of habitual truancy.�
We are experienced parents and have a long history of over 20 years as Foster Parents in the community. We have assumed legal, moral, and emotional commitments to raise nurture, and educate the 9 birth, adopted, and guardian children we have chosen to incorporate into our family. They range in age from 30 down to 6 years of age. Over many past years, we have worked closely with Child Protective Services and other offices of the Social Services Department. Education is as important a facet of our family as is food, clothing, shelter, love discipline, and the installation of a sense of personal and individual responsibility for one�s actions.
What heinous crime did we commit with this child? We took the family to New Hampshire for a week over Columbus Day Weekend to visit extended family members and to observe first hand the wonder of the mass fall foliage color change and traditional fall harvest events in small traditional New England towns.
Given the fact that this child is retarded and in a special education class, she is unable to comprehend a traditional class room explanation/presentation of the things to which she was exposed while out of school in New Hampshire those 6 days. She was able to observe first hand and comprehend by personal experience things such as:
� The changing colors of leaves.
� Covered bridges and the streams and rivers that they span
� Traditional New England small towns with their town meeting halls and classic white churches
� A traditional �county fair� complete with oxen pulls, traditional handicrafts, Shaker furniture designs, handmade quilts, etc.
� The beauty and majesty of the Milky Way, the fact that it REALLY IS a band of stars visible across the darkened sky and all the other stars and planets suddenly visible in the darkened country side away from urban light pollution.
� The beauty of the rise of a full moon across the lake and the broad path of moonlight shining down the lake in line with the rising moon.
� The wild �coydogs� that dart across the road at night and the deer that come to clearings in the early morning quiet and natural settings.
� Rural small traditional farms and the fall harvest.
These and many other things she experienced are not available in this area, to say nothing of in a classroom — and field trips died a long time ago.
My daughter�s special education class is an OUTSTANDING environment for her because of the special skills, experience, love, and understanding of her teacher. It is ONLY because of the program that this dedicated teacher has created that this child remains in public education. My wife and I have the highest respect and admiration for this teacher. This class is NOT a group-structured curriculum in which each child must stay in �lock step.� Fortunately, it is an individually structured program according to the individual needs of each individual and particular child who progresses at the rate of which he or she is personally capable.
Through many years experience with over 25 children we have supported, worked with and through the existing educational process. We are very familiar with the Individual Education Program (IEP) process and other aspects of the existing K-12 educational process. This includes our own birth children, adopted children, foster chidren, and children for whom we have obtained guardianship. This includes �normal� children, �gifted� children and �special needs� children. We know very well the value of education in today�s society, and the challenges that today�s existing school systems are struggling to meet.
We are convinced that today�s school system was perfected to produce workers for industry � 50 years ago. We are not convinced that today�s schools are preparing students for today�s, and much less tomorrow�s needs, especially for �special needs� children.
The current concept of �once size fits all� in classroom content, and presentation, and the accompanying standardized testing is out of date. This does not even begin to delve into the grossly �watered down� content, politically correct textbooks, and politically directed content. The letter we received and the draconian and bureaucratic mindset it presents reinforces this belief. This is why, even though at significant financial hardship to the family, all the rest of our school age children are in a private alternative educational program. It is one that emphasizes democracy, individual responsibility for one�s own education and behavior, and personal freedom to pursue individual personal interests at one�s own rate as deep as the individual may desire . It thus provides them a environment that reinforces their intellectual curiosity and one that is free of the afore mentioned bureaucracy, regimentation, and rigid draconian mindset. When I have reason to visit our local elementry school, the bells, PA announcements, whistles, and commands to �line up and quiet down� bring back memories of boot camp, not education.
This is not bearing so much on the article as on Harvey’s post. The regimented, one size fits all system may be all right for some students- though I doubt it. I know that I was a ‘gifted’ student, and it taught me to fight authority. I never got in trouble in school because I didn’t think it was necessary… but today I am a political extremist and I know many others who have become hackers, criminals, or part of some other underground. If I hadn’t been ‘gifted’ enough to get away with everything, I would have been in detention like so many other students. They are under the same burden I was; many just can’t express it as well.
I live in Dona Ana County. I have a son with autism who has been through the school system along with the massive fights over funding (they receive additional fed funds). He is finished with “school”, but now I have a daughter with perfect attendance, on the honor roll and attempting to be accepted in the “gifted” program, as she is extremely bored with the “curriculum”. She qualifies (math abilities off the charts) but they offer such a ridiculously short time for this that it’s simply not worth it. Here’s why—if these fed funds are not used within a set period of time, they go into the general fund; this translates directly into the main program/pet project, which is football. We received the warning letter on truancy, though for my daughter’s attendance level it won’t affect her. When my other two children were in school, I was a single parent with one very disabled kid, and I would be called repeatedly from work to pick him up because they did not have sufficient staff. Now they’re threatening parents for not giving their kids speed. CYFD is extremely screwy, and I state that as an ex state employee and as a parent. They abduct kids even on unsubstantiated reports, and often place them for adoption, a scam that has been occurring since the Mondale Act. They collect thousands of dollars for the abduction, and thousands more for the “sale”, er, adoption–check out the state’s homepage. They never go after kids of wealthy parents for obvious reasons, but poor single parents are prime targets.
Has anybody out there thought a class action suit might be a good idea. I agree with alot of these opinions have a similiar situation and know that a group speaks louder than an individual
i havnt personally had any truancy/licence problems but the problem i have a different one.
i missed a lot of school because i had to have surgery and i got all of my missed days “verified” at the front office but, they still said they were going to take my credits away im not sure but i think that is very illegal they ccant take my credits when my days are verified.
Uh, Jim, driving a car is not a right or a liberty at all. It’s merely an activity that is regulated by the state gov’t of New Mexico. And the idea behind taking away the driver’s liscense it to have a penalty that stops truency. If kids value their “freedom” in terms of driving enough, then taking away their ability to do that might give them pause when they go to ditch school. It’s a pretty good idea, if you make the punishment “hurt,” people tend not to do it.
Merely an activity? What in the world is an activity in the world of legalese?
You have rights, which are protected by the Constitution. You have liberties, which are restricted by laws. That’s it as far as the code of laws is concerned.
In any case, giving a school system the power to affect non-scholastic civil legal status is the problem here. We can make unrelated “hurtful” punishments for all sorts of things. They may even be frightfully effective in the short term. They have conistently proven to be immensely harmful in the long term.